Car-door lock



pm 8 1924; W 1,489,965

J. c. PRENTICE CAR DOOR LOCK Filed Deo. 28. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 April s 192@ J. C. FRENTICE CAR DOOR LOOK Filed Dec. 28. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gru/vanto@ f/@nhe attozuzq Patented Apr.. 8, 1924i.

UNIT@ TTS JAMES C. al

TICE, on rumeno, cono CAR-DOOR L0.

Application led December 28, 1922. Serial No. 609,437;

To all whom it may cof/wem:

Be it known that I, JAMES C. PRENTICE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pueblo, in the county of Pueblo and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Door Locks, of

'which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawlings.

This invention relates to car doors', and particularly to the doors of baggage, express or mail cars.

Many robberies on express and mail cars are performed by the robber breaking a window of the car from the outside, inserting his hand through the gap which is formed, and raising the latch or otherwise manipulating the latch or lock which holds the slidjng door of the car closed, and opening the oor. l

In order to obviate this, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a locking device. This lock releasing or actuating member is disposed adjacent the floor of the car at such a distance from the window that it is impossible for a robber to insert an arm through the window and raisel the latch or otherwise raise the lock.

A further object is to provide a construction of this kind which, however, does not entail the actual locking of the door by means of a key and which entails only small trouble to the mail clerk or express clerk in operating the lock to release the door.

A still further object is to provide alocking device of this character comprising a latch disposed in practically an ordinary position but entirely housed, and provide means for forcing the latch downward and holding it downward, which includes an actuating shaft extending vertically of the car door nearly to the Hoor thereof and which shaft carries a handle, the handle being detachably locked from actuation so that unlocking the door entails the manual release of the handle actuating latches and the manual actuation of the handle itself.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following' description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is an elevation looking toward the inside of a car wall, the floor being in section and showing my improvement 'applied to the door thereof; I,

Figure 2 is a sectional viewof the keeper and a fragmentary elevation of the latching device, the casing being broken away;

Figure 3 is a o tional view of the door and door jamb, the latching device being shown partly in elevation;

Figure 4 is an elevation of the locking mechanism and handle therefor partly in section;

Figure 5 is a section on the line 5--5 of Figure 4;

Referringto these drawings, it will be seen that I have illustrated a portion of the interior of an ordinary mail carl and that 10 designates one wall of the car and 11 the doorway. 12 indicates the sliding door operating across said doorway and mounted on rollers which operate upon the rail-13. This sliding door is provided, as usual, with a plurality of windows 14, these windows belng crossed by iron bars or strips 15 placed relatively. close together, attached to the door, and designed to prevent the unwarranted intrusion of any person from the outside.

These car doors as ordinarily made are ngitudinal horizontal secprovided with a latch 16, that is a swing latch, which engages with a pin 17 projecting from the jamb of the doorway. This swing latch is located relatively close to the nearest window 14 and forms` but a slight protection against the car door being opened, inasmuch as train robbers have on numerous occasions broken the window 14, inserted a hand, and raised the latch while the express messenger or other attendant was busied about other matters and possibly in a remote portion of the car;

The purpose of this invention, as before stated, is to provide a latch or lock which cannot be operated in this manner, and to that end I attach to the wall 10, and specifically to the jamb of the doorway, a keeper 18 which may project slightly beyond the jamb of the doorway and dispose upon the car door a casing 19 within which the latch or lock 2O is mounted. n

A's illustrated inFigure 2, this latch 20 is pivoted at 21 in the casing and the free end of the latch is formed with a V-shaped opening 22 adapted to engage with the keeper 18. The keeper maybe of any suitable character. The latch 20 has an opening 23l through its center, andy passing vertically through the casing 19 and through this openin is a shaft 24, this shaft being mounted in slgeeves centrically to the shaft or to the hub'of the cam. This cam is xedly mounted upon the shaft and when the shaft is given a half rotation from the position shown in Figure V2 the cam will act to force the latch 20 downward and into engagement with the keeper. When the cam is turned vto the full line position inxFigure 2, the spring 28 will act to force the latch upward and release it from engagement with the keeper. The shaft 24 extends downward, as illustrated in Figure. l, nearly to the floor of the car and extends through upper and lower pins 29 of a plate 30, which in turn is attached to the car door.

Mounted upon the lower portion of this shaft 24 and between the ears 29 is a handle 31, and it will be obvious that by shifting this-handle in one direction the latch 20 lwill be forced downward, and by shifting oted upon the pintle 34. The outer end of the dog is weighted at 35 and the nose of the dog normally extends over the handle 31. The handle is recessed at 36 where the dog projects over it. If it be desired to shift the handle the dog 32V is raised to lthe dotted line position in Figure 5, which will permit the handle to be shifted to its opposite position, and when the handle strikes the nose of the other dog on the opposite side of the plate, it will simply depress this nose until the handle has passed fully into the place between the ears 29, then the dog will drop back to its locking position and the handle will be looked from actuation.

OIt will be seen that with this construction it is impossible to operate the latch without first unlocking the auxiliary dog 32, then manually shifting the handle through a half revolution, and that this will act to force the main latch 2O into engagement with the keeper. Even if the window 14 be broken, the latch cannot be lifted because the under face of the cam 27 bears against the latch and the shaft to which it is attached cannot be rotated because the cam is contained within a casing. Furthermore, the shaft cannot be rotated because of the fact that the handle at its lower end is latched from rotation andthe only way in which the latch can beroperated is for the person to stoop down, release the dog 32, then manually shift the handle and rotate the shaft.

It will be seen that this device entails but little inconvenience on the express messenger or mail clerk and that it forms a very con- .l i

venient way of absolutely locking the door closed without any chance of anyone effectively tampering with the lock from the outside. At the same time it does not entail the actual locking of the door by means of a key, nor when the latch 20vis raised can it be accidentally depressed by an accidental y rotation of the handle which is locked in position by the dogs 32.

While l have illustrated a construction which I believe to be particularly valuable and effective, li do not wish to be limited thereto, as it is obvious that many changes might be made in the details of construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the scope of the invention as ,defined in the appended claims.

1. rllhe combination with a door and a door jamb, of means for locking the door to the door jamb comprising a keeper attached to one of these parts and a latching device attached to the other part and coacting with the keeper, said latching device comprising a latch shiftable into or out of engagement with the keeper, a shaft extending in the plane of movement of the latch and carried by the member carrying the latch, said shaft having a cam rotatable at right angles to the plane of movement of the latch and having a cam face confronting the latch and when turned in one direction forcing the latch into engagement with the keeper, and a handle disposed on said shaft whereby theshaft may be oscillated.

2. In a car having a door and a door j amb, means for locking the door to the door jamb comprising a keeper attached to one of these parts and a latching device attached to the other part and coactng with the keeper, said holding devicecomprising a latch shiftable into engagement with the keeper, a `vertical shaft extending upward from a point adjacent the floor of the car and carrying a horizontally disposed 'cam adapted to engage with the latch and when shifted to force the latch into engagement with the keeper, a vhandle disposed at the lower end of the shaft and adjacent the car Hoor whereby the shaft may be operated, and a dog holding the handle from actuation to shift the latch from its latching position.

3. In a car having a doorway, a door jamb and a door, means for latching the lated to depress the latch, a handle attached to the lower end of the shaft adjacent the loor whereby the shaft may he oscillated, and a dog holding the handle from oscillation.

4. In a car having a doorway, a door jamb and a door, means for latching the door comprising a keeper mounted on the door jamb and a latching device upon the door, the latching device comprisin a casing, a latch pivoted within the caslngand adapted to engage the keeper, the latch being urged upwardout of engagement with the'keeper by a spring, a shaft extending vertically through the casing and carrying a cam engaging with the latch and acting when the shaft is rotated to depress the latch, a handle attached to the lower end of the shaft adjacent the floor whereby the shaft may be osciIlated, a plate supporting the lower end of the shaft,ca dog pivoted upon one edge of the 'plate and having a nose normall projecting over the handle and preventmg the handle from being turned, the dog preventing the release of the handle unless the dog is manually turned -out of the path of movement of the handle.

5. rlvheeombination with a car door and a jamb, of means-for locking the door comprising a keeper mounted upon the jamb, a casing mounted upon the car door on a level with the keeper, a latch pivoted within the casing and projecting therefrom and engageable with the end of the keeper, a shaft passing upward through lthe casing and. mounted in bearings therein and havin a cam adapted to engage over the uppere ge of the latch, said cam when the shaft is giv-v en a half turn causing the depression of the latch, a spring urging the free end of the latch upward, a plate mounted upon the car door adjacent the floor of the car and having bearings for the lower end of the shaft, a handle -on the shaft whereb the shaft may be oscillated, two pairs o? ears projecting from the lower edge of the plate, one pair on each side ofthe shaft, dogs pivoted between said ears, the dogs having weighted outer ends and each dog havin v a nose projecting inward over the face o the handle, the handle being recessed to normally receive said nose, and means limiting the depression of the outer end of the dog but permittingthe dogl to turn into a position 4oir' alignment. w1tli the ears whereby to ,free the handle.

6. In a car having a door jamb and a door, means for latching the door comprisin a keeper mounted on one of these parts an a latchin device mounted upon the other part, t e latehing device comprising a casing, a latch pivoted within the casing and adapted to engage the keeper, the latch being urged upward out of engagement with the keeper by a spring, a sha t extending vertically through the casing and carrying a horizontally-disposed cam engaging with the latch and acting when the shaft is oscillated to depress the latch, a handle attached to the shaft, and means for holding the handle from oscillation.

In testimony whereof l hereunto axv 

